My daughters are only 2 years apart, so for the last 4 years we've had them in preschool, and have been lucky enough to have the same 2 teachers. My youngest just finished up the year, and I thought we needed to make them quilts.

This one is for Brenda, and I used the Little Apples Twister top I made to demonstrate the ruler for my quilt guild. It was easy since I already had the top pieced.

I thought it was fitting for Brenda, who has a second job as a children's librarian. I loved the little girl laying in the meadow reading.

I used 2 yards of my favorite print from the Little Apples line and some stash fabric for the back, and stippled it.

The binding was the same stash fabric. It goes really well with Little Apples.

When I went on a quilting retreat with my guild, the hotel provided design walls made of out lightweight foam insulation you can buy at any home improvement store. We all thought this was a pretty great idea. Since I didn't have a design wall at home, I decided to make one.

I bought the foam insulation. It comes in sheets of 4'x8' , which is a huge pain to get home, let me tell you. It was around $12.

I am really happy to finally be able to reveal a secret. I had a project published in Modern Patchwork, a special issue publication from Interweave! My author copies just arrived, and I am so pleased and proud.

Here's my little project - it's a set of 4 napkin rings. It's a quick and easy project that you can make for yourself, or as a hostess gift. I love the red plate they chose to photograph the napkin rings against.

The Boston Modern Quilt Guild has a retreat coming up this weekend and I could not be more excited! 3 days of uninterrupted sewing time - how awesome is that? I am packing a zillion things to bring, but my main project is constructing about 80 quilt blocks, which will involve a lot of pressing. Instead of getting up and going to the iron boards, I wanted to bring my own small pressing table. I've seen this idea before around blog-land, but I'd thought I'd share how I made mine.

I forgot to mention (last year!) that I wrote a pattern for this quilt, and it was published in 101 Patchwork Projects and Quilts. Well, the great team at Interweave has put together a free e-book with 6 different designs pulled from previous publications, and mine was included.

The president of the Boston Modern Quilt Guild - the lovely Laurie who blogs at Dodging the Butterfly - is pregnant & due in a week or so. The other members of the guild secretly decided to make her some handmade items and give her a little shower during today's meeting. I made a diaper pouch and some burp cloths.

First up are the burp cloths. After trying a few other methods, I ended up used this tutorial. I wanted the cloths to match the pouch.

I've been a long-time reader of Aneela Hoey's blog, and I realized that I love her little table toppers and pillows. Yet I never seem to make any. Then I saw this video tutorial on how to make a quick heart block.

I quickly put the blocks together and have this cute table runner. I backed it in plain quilter's muslin and stippled it (after my failed attempt to free motion hearts).

I'm in the middle of finishing a quick Valentine's Day project, but before I quilted it, I took friend Alice's wise advise to practice the quilting first. She is a big believer in using scraps or leftover blocks from the quilt you are making, and piece them together to make a mug rug or small coaster or whatever to audition quilting thread and quilting motifs.

These half square triangles were scraps and went together quickly for a mug rug.

I made yet another pattern from Amy Butler's Style Stitches, this time the Origami Bag. I wanted a cosmetic travel bag, and this pattern can be made up in 6 different sizes. I chose the extra large. I made this one first for myself, in my beloved County Fair fabrics.

I am going away snowboarding with 2 of my best friends in a few weeks, and I wanted to make some for them, too.

I used this Michael Miller butterfly fabric left over from a previous project, and a matching stripe.